Stand-In Bride by Barbara Boswell

Author:Barbara Boswell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Deception, General, Romance, Bachelors, Fiction, Secretaries
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 1997-10-15T20:10:47.703000+00:00

Eight

The next morning, Julia contacted every name on Michael’s list. As instructed, she didn’t tell anybody what they would be seeing and hearing. From the comments some people made, she knew they were assuming the news segment involved publicity for Fortune products.

Only Kristina and Sterling Foster knew the secret. Sterling was reticent, assuring Julia that he would watch the telecast. Kristina was exuberant, exclaiming that she wouldn’t miss the historic broadcast for anything and that she intended to make copies of it.

Michael flew to Chicago for the day, so Julia saw him only briefly, when he stopped by the office to pick up some necessary files. He was accompanied by another Fortune executive and merely nodded to her, paying her no more attention than he did the desk or the halogen pole lamp.

Telling her roommates in person was as difficult as Julia had anticipated. Maybe even more so.

“You’re engaged to your boss?” Jen was flabbergasted when Julia broke the news shortly before the five-thirty telecast. “But I’ve never heard you mention him, Julia. I didn’t even know you were dating him!”

“I didn’t know you were dating anybody,” Debby added, looking astounded. “Talk about a top-secret romance!”

Julia smiled wanly. She hated deceiving the girls. It had been so much simpler lying to Faith Carlisle. Julia felt a glimmer of understanding for those politicians who could lie with such ease to the media.

And when she looked at Kia, she cringed. They’d lived together for the past two years, and she knew Kia didn’t believe this sudden engagement fairy tale.

Julia was amazed, therefore, when Kia turned to Jen and Debby and said, “You two have only been around since August. You weren’t here when Julia was heavily involved with Michael Fortune all last year. They broke up in the summer—around the Fourth of July, wasn’t it, Julia?—because he didn’t want to get married. Seems like he changed his mind.”

Julia gulped, throwing Kia a grateful look. She decided that this was the tale she would tell her friends at work, along with Kristina’s story about maintaining secrecy to guard their privacy. She wondered if they would believe it and couldn’t blame them if they didn’t.

“I wanted to keep our, um, relationship quiet because I wasn’t sure how things would turn out this time,” Julia murmured. At least she didn’t have to act uneasy and uncomfortable—she genuinely was.

“Who can blame you? Once dumped, twice shy,” Debby said with feeling.

“We’re so happy for you, Julia!” cried Jen.

Kia’s dark brown eyes met her roommate’s. “Girlfriend, right now I can’t find the words to express how I feel about all this….”

Julia knew she would find some words later, after Jen and Debby had left for the theater. And she did.

The two sat in the living room, sipping Frenchvanilla-flavored coffee from their Minnesota Vikings mugs.

“That was a nice story Faith Carlisle did on you and your fiancé,” Kia said, accentuating the word. “I always thought the news was supposed to be factual, but hey, a little fiction can be fun.

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